==tulip speaks==

Watery eyes
Sneezes
Running nose
Headache
Funny feeling

||  I’m officially attacked by the flu virus ||

Taking a break..

I have another post for today but I can’t help it when I read this news online. Got to post it right away…

Not
long ago, a 13-year old Sufiah Yusoff made it to the Oxford University.
Now, she is posting ‘her service’ for £130 for an hour in the Internet.
It is reported that she has turned into a hooker. The paper reported
that she had called herself Shilpa
Lee on a hookers’ website. She is said to have advertised herself as “a
sexy, smart student” who preferred “older gentlemen”.

 Happier Sufiah (Credit: BBC News)

Troubles started when she ran away from home at 15. Refused to go back to home, saying living with his father is like hell. Placed under social care, and then got married when she turned 19 only to get divorced a year later.

So, now she is a hooker and her father whom she is not fond of, has been sent to jail for molesting two students under his care *sigh. The family is ruined and I am still thinking what went wrong.

My mood is spoilt for the day. May be this is one reason why I should refrain from reading newspapers in the morning.

When I started blogging, I knew no one in the blogsphere. I just
treated my previous blog as a space to voice out my frustration and to
a certain extent, gain some attention I was lacking of. Yes, i
succeeded in my mission - I gain not only attention but friendship.
Now, that was an added bonus which I never expect in the first place.

I
slowly build a network, which consisted of blogmates who knew me
through my writing. My writing which reflected my inner desires,
feelings, opinions etc brought me wonderful friends. Even now, my YM
has a long list of such friends I gain through the blogsphere. I had so
much fun exploring into a new world - a world that promised me the
wonders of friendship.

However, they have slowly varnished from
the blogsphere and those still here don’t seem to be passionate about
it. No, I’m not talking about a single common platform like Mindsblog or Betweenus,
but about the healthy ‘blog visits’ we used to have, the long chats we
used to have in the comment section. Many can be just passed as junks
but it was lively. We used to have this small online gatherings in YM
voice conference, and it was used to be so damn lovely!!! Gosh.. I’m
missing all that now.

You
guys are wonderful, leaving me comments which spurred me to write more
and more. I should thank the regulars as well as the silent readers.
But don’t you feel things are getting more and more formal? So formal
that we are losing the fun side of blogging?

But I’m missing my old days here. Where are you guys? Where is the passion? Where is the love? Where is the bond?

have updated my shopping blog, Shopping Paradise
with new sets of brooches and pendant-earrings. These pretty looking
accessories come in beautiful gift boxes/bags and are affordable too!

Pink flower brooch & pin set for RM18/set. Also available in pastel blue colour.

Silver toned brooch for RM15/pc.

Single clear rhinestone pendant & earrings set for RM20/set. Available in three designs.

Aren’t they gorgeous? There few more designs and lots of other stuff in Shopping Paradise.
I do shipping for overseas as well. Contact me (im@tulipspeaks.com) to
order/for enquiries, or simply leave a message in the comment box!

For the past one week I was in a war with my router. Seriously my
(ex-)router hates me. I can’t think of any other reason why it refused
to get connected to my laptop, but willingly allowed itself to be
connected to my sister’s laptop and my brother’s pc. My laptop, after
being jilted by the router, refused to connect to that particular
router but accepted connection from any other router.

After
trying my best to get things right (and failed), I decided to take both
my laptop and the router to the computer service shop. *sigh. To my
dismay, even the Chinese guy there was clueless about it. We tried
everything we could, even reformatted my laptop in the process
(ggrrrr.. lost substantial number of files there, but that’s another
story for another day). Finally I got myself a new router, and it
worked!!

The guy asked me to check the connection right there,
and can anyone guess which site I went first? My bloggie -
definitely. And the guy was dumbstruck when he saw me publishing the
comments here.

The guy(pointing at tulipspeaks): Ini u punya ke? [Is that yours?]
Me: Ya la. [Yes]

The guy: U blog pasal apa? [What do you blog about?]
Me: Apa-apa pun boleh. [Anything goes ;)]

The guy: Politik adakah? [Politics?]
Me: Kadang-kadang adalah. [Sometimes]

The guy (with eyes wide open): Betulkah? [Is it true?]
Me: Betul la. [True]

The guy: U tak nampak macam blogger la! [You don't look like a blogger!]
Me: Hahahahaha.. yea ka? [Is it?]

I never took my eyes off the laptop screen during the entire conversation

We
just experienced a ‘blogging boom’ in Malaysia, especially since late
2007 and during the election, bloggers paid an important role in
influencing the voters’ sentiment. At the same time, we do have people
blogging for fun - the reason I believe why most of us blog. Least I
expected sociopolitical bloggers to be stereotyped to ‘look’ like Jeff Ooi or Marina Mahathir. And not all fun bloggers look like Kenny Sia, XiaXue or NicoleKiss.
I don’t think a blogger’s physical appearance got anything to do with
stuff that they write online. And I am still thinking what is wrong
with my physical appearance and articles I write online. Maybe I still
look like a school girl, I don’t know *sighhhhh…

Some
bloggers have no qualm about revealing their real self online. Even
sometimes I think my bloggie is overloaded with my photos :P. But some
prefer to just be anonymous and stick to a nickname instead of
revealing their name or photo. I’m sure each of us has at least one or
two such blogmate/blog reader, and if you do:

1. Have you ever wondered how they looked in real life?
2. Or do you actually create an imaginary figure of them whenever you come across their blog or whenever you see their nick?
3. Do you attempt to get to know them in real? eg. asking for their photo or starting e-mail conversation?

*No Nostalgic Friday post for this week.

For those advocating Makkal Sakhti…

Movie: Iruvar
Song: Viduthalai

Listen carefully to the lyrics, you won’t miss the word "Makkal Sakhti"…

For everyone else…

Movie: Iruvar
Song: Hello Mr Ethirkatchi

Ever wonder what was Aishwarya’s first movie appearance? Here it is..

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Now all the hype is settling in. BN and the people are slowly (but
surely) accepting the fact that 5 states are now going to be ruled by
DAP-PKR-PAS. They have promised, we have spoken, and now its time to
sit back and watch.

March 8 was not only historic in that sense.
It was International Women’s Day, and couple of my friends did send me
smses wishing me for the day. Thank you guys and sorry I didn’t get to
reply - was focusing too much on the election

I
hope it is still not too late for a post on the day. Last year I have
highlighted beautiful women bloggers I have known in the blogworld.
This time, I don’t think I am going to pinpoint anyone, or slam the
male species. See.. I’m being a good gal.

My heart goes to the
men this time. I know, the sub-species of male chauvinists, abusers and
blah blah blah… are slowly going to extinct. It may take some time
before we could celebrate the extinction of such dangerous creatures.
but we are getting there. There are men who walk by their women, not in
front trying to take control. There are men who remember the birthdays,
anniversary dates etc. There are men who help around with the
housework. There are men who hold the lift doors for the ladies. There
are men who are simply amazing , beyond description. It is possible for
us, the women to keep on progressing with the encouragement given by
these men. And this year, the celebration should be dedicated to such
men.